These indoor games are perfect for the next snow day or during the upcoming Spring Break. But be warned ... they will lead to fits of giggles and snorts!
TOUCH: What's that Touching My Face?
What you'll need:
- Feathers
- Cloth
- Cotton balls
- Anything that is small and textured
- Blindfold
How to play:
Have two players face each other, one blindfolded and the other with half of the collected items. The player who is sighted gently brushes the objects, one by one, across the blindfolded player's cheek. The player with the items must handle them carefully as to not let the other player tell what each item is. Remember, the softer the pressure, the harder to tell what is touching your face. The blindfolded player guesses what the object is and when they guess correctly, the two players switch places using the other half of the items.
SIGHT: I Spy With My Little Eye
It's an oldie but a goodie, so to speak. You remember that game you used to play as a child. The first spyer looks around to find his or her chosen object and says "I spy with my little eye something ___________." They can insert a color or a size or a shape whatever they want to use to discribe what they have spied. The guessers then take turns asking if it's what they think it is. If no one has guessed correctly after the first round, the spyer gives another clue. This game can last a while and can be made more interesting by allowing the spyer to take a walk around the inside of the house to pick their item and then allowing the guessers to go look for it. The bigger the space the more objects to guess!
TASTE & SMELL: What Am I Eating?
What you'll need:
- small cups
- cotton swabs
- different foods with similar textures (try items like ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, sweet and sour sauce, and maple syrup.)
- pen and paper for charting
How to play:
With two children, one person can be the taster and the other the tester, but you can switch at the end so both will get a chance to taste. With more than two children or with young children, all the children can be blindfolded for tasting and the adult can be the tester.
Draw a chart for recording your results. Write the name of each food you are testing in separate rows along the left side. Draw two columns for each taster. Label each column with the taster's name and "unplugged" or "plugged." Make some predictions about which foods will be easier and harder to identify. Will it be easier or harder to taste the foods with your nose plugged or unplugged? Blindfold the taster or just have her close her eyes. The tester then puts a little bit of one food on the taster's tongue with a cotton swab. The taster tries to identify which food she's tasting as well as whether it is salty, bitter, sweet or sour. The tester records the taster's answers on the chart for each food she tastes. When the taster has tried all the foods blindfolded, have her taste them each again but with her nose plugged as well. (Make sure you have her taste the foods in a different order.) Once the taster has tried each food with her nose plugged, switch who tastes and who tests and go through it all again. When all the children have had a chance to taste, compare the results. Which way was more challenging, with just eyes closed or with nose plugged too? Were certain foods especially hard or easy to taste? Try it again with crunchy foods or liquids! A lot of what we think is taste is actually smell. That's why, when our noses are plugged, we can't taste some of the foods.
HEARING: Telephone
You probably remember this one from your own childhood too. This game works best with lots of people and a range of ages! Sit in a circle or a row with players a foot or more apart. Choose one person to start. He comes up with a phrase or sentence — silly or serious, it doesn't matter. He leans over and whispers the phrase in the ear of the person next to him. That person whispers what she heard into the ear of the next player, and that continues around the circle. When the last person has whispered the phrase in the ear of the first person, he repeats it out loud. After the laughter dies down, he can tell everyone the original sentence or phrase.
